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Pirots 3 Review: the Wild West Predecessor

Review By Updated 2 Aug 2026
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Pirots 5 Pirots 5 (ELK Studios)
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Pirots 3 is the 2024 Wild West entry - a 6x7 CollectR grid, 94% top RTP and a 10,000x max win, with a hit rate around 25%. It remains one of the most-played games in the series. Here\'s the review and the comparison with Pirots 5.

The short version, up front

Pirots 3 shipped on 25 June 2024 with a 94% top RTP, a 10,000x max win, and a hit rate of roughly 25.2%, and it's still the entry I point people to when they want the Wild West flavour of ELK's collection engine. It runs a 6x7 grid instead of the square boards its siblings use, volatility sits at a punchy 8 on ELK's own 10-point scale, and the top prize lands about once in 22,686,171 spins. That last figure is not a typo. It's a lottery-odds ceiling, and it tells you exactly what kind of ride this is.

My verdict after a run of demo sessions in August 2026, all played and tested by Ryan Cole: a strong, high-variance CollectR slot that the newer Pirots 5 improves on in the one place it always hurt, the RTP. Everything else here holds up. The carnival theme is one of the better ones ELK has drawn, the collection loop is as moreish as ever, and there are documented 10,000x hits on YouTube for people who ride the variance to the far end. If you're weighing up which Pirots to cut your teeth on, this review lays out what the third game does well, where it stings, and exactly how it stacks up against the current release.

How the Wild West board actually plays

Same skeleton as the rest of the family, new coat of paint. Four colour-coded birds, the "Fearful Four", sit at the edges of the grid, and each one eats gems that match its own colour. A collection meter fills as they feed, symbols cascade in to refill the empty cells, the gems level up through value tiers, and the board grows as you hit thresholds. When I loaded the demo the birds moved in payout order, which is the little rhythm that makes CollectR feel alive rather than random.

Where Pirots 3 leans into its theme is the trap layout. Instead of the space hazards its sequel would later use, this one dresses the mechanics in saloons, carnival tents and frontier props. The core loop stays identical: feed the birds, fill the meters, chase the bonus, hope the multipliers stack.

The 6x7 board is the quiet oddity of the family. Most Pirots games play on a square grid; this one is taller than it is wide, which changes how the birds path across the cells and how quickly a colour clears. It's a small thing on paper. In practice it gives the third game a slightly different feel from Pirots 2 before it and Pirots 4 after it, even though the underlying CollectR maths is the same engine humming along. I noticed the vertical board most during long collection chains, when a single colour would sweep top to bottom and empty half the screen in one satisfying pass.

What the birds are chasing

  • Matching-colour gems that upgrade as the meter climbs
  • Wilds that stand in for gems at the current level
  • Bonus symbols that unlock the free-drop round
  • Grid expansion as thresholds fall
Pirots 5 CollectR birds collecting matching-colour gems, the same ELK Studios loop Pirots 3 runs
The CollectR loop is shared across the series - birds feed, meters fill, gems level up.

A word on that variance

Eight out of ten on ELK's own scale is high, and you feel it. Base spins pay pennies. The money lives in the bonus, and the bonus is stingy about showing up. In my sessions the dry patches ran long, then a decent collection round would claw a chunk back. If your bankroll is thin, this game will test it before it rewards it, and I can't promise the maths will land in your favour on any given night. That's just what an 8/10 volatility slot does.

The bonus is the whole game

As with every CollectR title, the free-drops round is where Pirots 3 makes or breaks a session. You trigger it by collecting bonus symbols, and crucially your grid size and collection progress carry into it, so a bonus that lands late, when the board is already large and the meters are loaded, pays far better than one that arrives cold. That persistence is the clever bit ELK built the series on, and it's why patient play beats spray-and-pray here.

How it sits in the series

BigWinBoard scored the third game 7/10 from the critic and 8/10 from users, right in line with the rest of the run. It's not the standout entry, that praise tends to go to Pirots 2 and 4, but it's a solid, distinctive chapter with a theme that lands. The franchise is genuinely popular and a little divisive, and the recurring gripe was always the same 94% that dogs this game too.

Pirots 3 vs Pirots 5: the numbers side by side

Here's the head-to-head that matters most. The engine barely changed between them; the RTP ceiling did.

SpecPirots 3Pirots 5
Release25 June 2024Around 23 July 2026
ThemeWild West / carnivalAncient Egypt
Grid6x7 (expands)6x6, expands to 8x8
Top RTP94%96% (down to 87% by model)
Max win10,000x10,000x
Hit rate~25.2%~25.1% (review-sourced)

Two things jump out. The max win is a wash. Both cap at 10,000x, so nobody upgraded for a bigger ceiling. And the hit rate is basically identical, near one in four spins doing something. The real gap is that 94% versus 96% top RTP, which brings us to the whole point of the sequel.

Notice what the table does not show, too. Pirots 3's grid is the outlier at 6x7, taller than the 6x6 boards on either side of it in the family tree. So the sequel actually narrowed the board back to square while widening the RTP. If you're the kind of player who cares more about long-run give-back than novelty, Pirots 5 is the stronger buy on those two points alone. If you just want the frontier theme and don't mind the two-point RTP tax, the older game still delivers.

The RTP finally moved

For four mainline games the franchise sat at a 94% ceiling, and every reviewer griped about it. Pirots 5 is the first to reach 96% at its best model. On paper that's two points. Over thousands of spins it's the difference between a slow bleed and a slower one, and it's the single most meaningful thing the newer title changed. Worth knowing: operators can still run lower models, so the number you get depends on the casino.

Everything else is iteration

New theme, a named antagonist, fresh trap set, a wider feature-buy menu. The CollectR core is the same one Pirots 3 uses. If you liked the Wild West board, the Egyptian one will feel like home with better lighting. Reviewers called Pirots 5 an "iterative upgrade, not a departure", and having played both, that's fair.

Where Pirots 3 shows its age

Let's be honest about the rough edges.

The 94% top RTP is the headline complaint, and it's a real one. It was the ceiling for the whole series until Pirots 5, and if you're comparing modern ELK titles, that two-point gap counts against the older game.

The 8/10 volatility is not for everyone. Base spins pay little, the bonus is slow to arrive, and a shallow bankroll can drain before the good stuff triggers. I've watched the demo balance slide for a long stretch with nothing to show for it.

And the max-win odds are brutal. About one in 22,686,171 spins for the 10,000x, which means you are almost certainly never hitting the ceiling, so treat it as a headline figure, not a plan. On top of that, feature buy is region-restricted and banned in the UK and some markets, so the fastest route to the bonus may simply not exist for you.

Trying it and playing it

Free demos of the older Pirots titles are widely hosted, so you can learn the collection loop without spending a cent. For real money, availability varies by region and operator; search the lobby for ELK Studios titles rather than assuming a given casino carries it. If you do play for stakes, the one offer we cover is 1Win's welcome package, and our 1Win review lays out the wagering terms. Deposits and withdrawals run through cards, e-wallets like Skrill and Neteller, and crypto such as BTC and USDT, with timing that varies by operator. Set a budget first. An 8/10 volatility game does not forgive loose bankroll management.

Want the current release instead? My full Pirots 5 review covers the 96% jump in detail. For the whole timeline see the Pirots series guide, and the direct predecessor to Pirots 5 gets its own Pirots 4 breakdown.

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